A hundred-year balance Annual Report 2010 - Uzin Utz AG

Research and development activity
Costs for research and development in the Group amounted
to €5.4 million (4.7) in the year 2010. An average of
77 (75) employees worked in the area of R&D / product
technology, who together contributed to a new product
quota of all Uzin Utz development locations of 49% (38).
In terms of individual brands, we can report as follows:
UZIN & codex brands
UZIN has been a brand of expertise of the specialist trade
and specialist wholesale business in the building industry
for 60 years. For this purpose, Uzin Utz AG produces
a wide range of construction chemical products which
have properties specially matched to the application
processes. At the Ulm headquarters, the R&D personnel
research and develop ever newer and more innovative
product systems, in order to facilitate the work of
customers in a systematic way. They develop outstanding
products, whose performance makes them stand
out clearly from the other products on the market, and
provide clearly defined added value for the customer. In
the reporting year 2010, and therefore one year earlier
than planned, the new product quota of 51.9% exceeded
the target of 50% set four years ago for the Jubilee
year 2011.
» In concrete terms, this means that Uzin Utz AG in
2010 generated €46 million of sales with “new” products,
which are no more than 5 years old. The innovation
leadership of Uzin Utz AG was also impressively
confirmed by the representative market survey carried
out by the periodical “Fußbodentechnik” in the 04/2010
issue, which asked 1,500 German flooring businesses to
name their favourite laying materials. Uzin Utz AG emerged
as the “most popular laying material manufacturer
of the year 2010”, and the dry mortar products UZIN NC
170 LevelStar and UZIN NC 182 each took first place in
the categories “Best self-levelling compound” and “Best
low-slump levelling compound”. In the other flooring system
categories of “Primer” and “Adhesive”, the corresponding
UZIN fluid products all gained a place on the
podium. The dispersion products UZIN PE 280 and UZIN
KE 2000 S achieved one third and one second place respectively.
This is the best possible confirmation that the
development results of Uzin Utz AG enjoy the greatest
regard in the sector. Competitive advantages can only
be consistently used, and above-average growth achieved,
with a continual flow of innovations. The continuity
of the research strategy is important both for boom
and for crisis times. The global recession has left deep
scars on many companies, in some cases creating great
uncertainty, although not at Uzin Utz AG. On the contrary,
the R&D strategy of the company is directed in
the long term at the further development of the portfolio,
and at ground-breaking solutions derived from global
trends. Uzin Utz AG has laid the groundwork for sustainable
successes of the business areas of UZIN and codex
with a series of new products. In this case, it was essential
to take into account the paradigm shift in the sector,
according to which success is not determined only
by new products, but also by new effects, new systems
and new system solutions. This decisive contribution
to achieving our ambitious objectives was made by our
highly-motivated R&D personnel, who in 2010 devoted
every effort to bringing new products online, and from
a pipeline of 45 projects at the Ulm headquarters, and
prepared 22 products for market launch.
» The major highlights are described below:
1. Dry mortar developments
a) Laying materials for natural stone
Natural stones are formed by natural processes, so that
unevenness, colour and shape variations cannot be prevented.
Every natural stone is unique, and this uniqueness
therefore also places special requirements on the
laying and jointing. Laying products which preserve the
natural beauty of the stone are therefore all the more
important. For this reason, Uzin Utz AG has set itself the
strategic objective in the area of cement-based natural
stone grouting of offering the craftsman special advantages
in the form of innovations. Following the successful
development in 2007 of a comprehensive grouting range
for ceramic tiles in different shades, extensive formulation
work was carried out in 2010 to produce a total of
9 different colour variants for the natural stone grouting
range codex Brillant cristal. These cement-based natural
stone grouting mortars complete the codex grouting
mortar range in an exclusive way, so that nothing
more stands in the way of their market launch in 2011.
Beginning with the mixing process, through to jointing
and washing of the natural stone joints, outstanding
added value has been provided for natural stone layers.
The finished natural stone joint appearance also stands
out for the full joint filling and the exceptional look. The
new, very low-emission grouting mortars for natural
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